Cheque Handling Procedures

System
System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
edited June 9 in AAT member discussion
Is it necessary for more than one person to open the mail (after it has been sorted by the postroom, opened by machine and then delivered to the Finance dept) and process the cheques or is it sufficient for one person to do it and a manager sign it off?<BR><BR>I know that normally at least two people should open the post and this happens in the postroom. The cheques are then sent to the relevant team for processing. Once the cheques are banked the batches with the supporting documentation are processed by another member of the team and posted onto te system.<BR><BR>What do people think? Can one person process and bank the cheques with a manager signing it off or shoudl there be at least two people involved throughout the process?

Comments

  • System
    System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Cheque Handling Procedures

    While not definitive, my feeling is no. The main reason why two people are involved in opening the post is because of the possibility of receiving cash by post, which is far more liquid than cheques.<BR><BR>Cheques are robustly fraud proof, especially crossed cheques. Not only would they be a lot more difficult to turn into cash by a fraudster, they are a lot more easily traced. I'd say that once they've been opened and signed off only one person needs to be involved in processing them.<BR>
  • System
    System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Cheque Handling Procedures

    I'd say it depends on the size of your company. I've worked in small Companies where the same person has opened the post and dealt with the banking and also large companies where one person opens the post and completes a form with all cheques received on that date which is also witnessed by another person. The cheque and copy list is sent to the Finance Department where one person completes the paying in book and enters to the computerised cash book, another person takes the cash to the bank, and yet another allocates the cash against the customers.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Cheque Handling Procedures

    Just my half pennies worth but cheque fraud unfortunately, is all too common. If your company insists on accepting cheques in payment I would suggest that they are not opened in the mail room at all but in the Finance Dept. This may mean more processing time for the Finance team, depending on the mail volume but should prove to be a safer approach. If a large number of cheques are received on a daily basis then a cash management technique known as 'lock box', which outsources cheque handling to a bank, may be a more logical approach.

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